Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

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Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
10. TURBINA
Woody vines, twining, glabrous or pubescent, which produce scarce watery latex. Leaves alternate,
petiolate; blades simple, cordiform; stipules absent. Inflorescences of axillary cymes, terminal panicles,
or the flowers solitary; sepals unequal, ovate or lanceolate, accrescent in the fruit; corollas infundibuliform
or hypocrateriform, white, greenish, pink, or crimson; stamens inserted, the filaments glandularpubescent
at the base; ovary superior, bilocular, the style simple, with two globose stigmas. Fruits
indehiscent, dry, woody to crustaceous, ellipsoid or globose, unilocular; seed usually 1, ovoid to ellipsoid,
pubescent. A pantropical genus of about 12 species.
1. Turbina corymbosa (L.) Raf., Fl. Tellur. 11:
81. 1838.
Fig. 2. D; 79. A-G
BASIONYM: Convolvulus corymbosus L.
SYNONYM: Rivea corymbosa (L.) H. Hallier
Aguinaldo blanco, Corona de novia
Woody vine, twining, much branched from the
base, attaining 10 m or more in length, with scarce
watery latex. Stems glabrous or pubescent,
cylindrical when young, compressed, angular, or
sulcate when mature, up to 3 cm in diameter, the
bark grayish, with numerous dark lenticels; cross
section of the stem polystelic, with peripheral
vascular cylinders of different diameters. Leaves
alternate; blades 3-10 × 2.7-5.5 cm, ovate,
chartaceous, the apex acute, short-acuminate, or
acuminate, the base cordiform, the margins entire,
slightly undulate; upper surface dark green,
slightly shiny, glabrous, the venation flat; lower
surface pale green, dull, glabrous or puberulous,
with a prominent midvein; petioles 1.5-6 cm long,
11. XENOSTEGIA
slender, cylindrical, glabrous. Flowers numerous
in axillary corymbs. Calyx green, the sepals
oblong, 10-12 mm long, coriaceous, acute at the
apex; corolla 2.5-3 cm long, white,
infundibuliform, the tube yellow internally, except
for the dark violet base, the limb with 5 yellowish
bands forming a stellate design; stamens white,
not exserted, the anthers sagittate; stigmas white,
globose, not exserted. Fruits indehiscent, ellipsoid
to subovoid, crustaceous, 1-1.5 cm long, the sepals
persistent, unequal, accrescent, woody. Seed one,
ellipsoid to subglobose, 4-5 mm long, minutely
pubescent, light brown.
Phenology: Flowering from the end of October
to January and in May, and fruiting in January
and February.
Status: Native, locally common.
Distribution: On roadsides or in recent
secondary forests. Also throughout the Antilles,
from Mexico to Bolivia, and the United States
(Florida), introduced in the Old World tropics.
Public forests: Cambalache, Río Abajo, and
Susúa.
A genus of two species, native to tropical Asia. The species that is described below characterizes the
genus.
1. Xenostegia tridentata (L.) D. F. Austin &
Staples, Brittonia 32: 533. 1980.
Fig. 79. H-M
BASIONYM: Convolvulus tridentatus L.
SYNONYM: Ipomoea angustifolia Jacq.
Merremia angustifolia (Jacq.) H. Hallier
Ipomoea filicaulis Willd.
Slightly woody vine, twining, much branched,
climbing or creeping, 1-2 m in length, with scarce
milky latex. Stems glabrous or pubescent, angular.
Leaves alternate; blades 2-10 × 0.5-0.6 cm,
chartaceous, linear, oblong, or lanceolate, the apex
acute or acuminate and mucronate, the base
hastate or auriculate, the margins 1-3-dentate in
the basal portion; upper surface dark green, dull,